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9 dead as India, Pakistan trade fire along Kashmir border

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9 dead as India, Pakistan trade fire along Kashmir border
News

News

9 dead as India, Pakistan trade fire along Kashmir border

2018-05-19 12:51 Last Updated At:12:51

Eight civilians, including an Indian husband and wife and four members of a Pakistani family, were killed when Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at border posts and villages along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, officials said Friday. An Indian soldier was also killed in the fighting.

An Indian man mourns by the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An Indian man mourns by the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

The cross-border firing and shelling began overnight and spread to dozens of posts in the Jammu region of the Himalayan territory, said Indian police officer S.D. Singh.

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An Indian man mourns by the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An Indian man mourns by the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An Indian boy inspects a house damaged in India-Pakistan cross border firing, in Chandu Chak village, Ranbir Singh Pura sector, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An Indian boy inspects a house damaged in India-Pakistan cross border firing, in Chandu Chak village, Ranbir Singh Pura sector, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Indian women wail near the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, as they block a road during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Indian women wail near the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, as they block a road during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A Pakistani villager holds remains of a shell allegedly fired by Indian troops in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahid Ikram)

A Pakistani villager holds remains of a shell allegedly fired by Indian troops in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahid Ikram)

People attend funeral Pakistani villagers allegedly killed by Indian shelling in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahif Ikram)

People attend funeral Pakistani villagers allegedly killed by Indian shelling in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahif Ikram)

Indian paramilitary officials said their soldiers responded to Pakistani gunfire and shelling, describing it as "unprovoked and indiscriminate." The officials said the paramilitary soldier was killed by a Pakistani sniper Thursday night, leading to cross-border firing and shelling at several forward posts.

An Indian boy inspects a house damaged in India-Pakistan cross border firing, in Chandu Chak village, Ranbir Singh Pura sector, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An Indian boy inspects a house damaged in India-Pakistan cross border firing, in Chandu Chak village, Ranbir Singh Pura sector, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

The husband and wife were killed when a shell fired from the Pakistani side hit their home, Indian police said. Two other civilians were also killed on the Indian side. At least 12 civilians were also wounded and were being treated in hospitals.

A Pakistani woman, Kulsoom Hussain, and her three children were killed when a mortar fired by Indian troops from across the frontier struck their home, local police official Mohammad Amin said. The woman was making food at the time.

Indian women wail near the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, as they block a road during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Indian women wail near the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, as they block a road during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

The exchange of fire between Pakistan and India continued for hours near Pakistan's city of Sialkot bordering Kashmir, forcing villagers to move to safer places.

In a statement, Pakistan army accused Indian troops of initiating an "unprovoked" violation of the 2003 cease-fire accord between the two countries along the frontier near Kashmir and targeting the civilian population, including four villagers who died Friday morning.

A Pakistani villager holds remains of a shell allegedly fired by Indian troops in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahid Ikram)

A Pakistani villager holds remains of a shell allegedly fired by Indian troops in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahid Ikram)

According to the statement, the military said Indian fire also wounded 10 people, including three children.

It said Pakistani troops "effectively" responded and targeted the Indian posts from where the fire came.

The military said the artillery exchange was continuing. Pakistan's foreign ministry said the killed civilians were members of a family.

As in the past, each country accused the other of initiating the border skirmishes and violating the cease-fire agreement.

People attend funeral Pakistani villagers allegedly killed by Indian shelling in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahif Ikram)

People attend funeral Pakistani villagers allegedly killed by Indian shelling in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahif Ikram)

This year, soldiers from the two nations have engaged in fierce border skirmishes along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, as well as a lower-altitude 200-kilometer (125-mile) boundary separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab, where Friday's fighting occurred.

Indian officials said the latest violence has sent thousands of people fleeing from their homes in dozens of frontier villages to government buildings converted into temporary shelters or to the houses of friends and relatives living in safer places. Bullets and shrapnel scarred homes and walls on both sides.

Singh, the Indian officer, said authorities were evacuating civilians living near the frontier in armored vehicles. The fighting earlier this year also sent thousands of border residents to temporary shelters for days.

Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned an Indian diplomat on Friday and lodged a strong protest over the killing of civilians along the frontier.

The ministry said Indian forces have carried out more than 1,050 cease-fire violations, resulting in the deaths of 28 civilians and injuries to 117 others.

"The cease-fire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," it said in a statement.

Indian officials say Friday's killings took the death toll in such incidents to 20 civilians and 18 government troops this year in over 700 cease-fire violations initiated by Pakistan. They say dozens have been injured and scores of cattle have perished.

India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, which both claim. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the region.

The fighting has become a predictable cycle of violence as the region convulses with decades-old animosities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, where rebel groups demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training anti-India rebels and also helping them by providing gunfire as cover for incursions into the Indian side.

Pakistan denies this, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.

Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key U.S. agencies, including the FBI, State Department and the Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with cost-cutting chief Elon Musk's latest demand that federal workers explain what they accomplished last week — or risk losing their job.

The pushback from appointees of President Donald Trump marked a new level of chaos and confusion within the beleaguered federal workforce, just a month after Trump returned to the White House and quickly began fulfilling campaign promises to shrink the government.

Administration officials scrambled throughout the weekend to interpret Musk's unusual mandate, which apparently has Trump's backing despite some lawmakers arguing it is illegal. Unions want the administration to rescind the request and are threatening to sue.

Some officials are resisting. Others are encouraging their workers to comply. At some agencies, there was conflicting guidance.

One message on Sunday morning from the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instructed its roughly 80,000 employees to comply. That was shortly after the acting general counsel, Sean Keveney, had instructed some not to. And by Sunday evening, agency leadership issued new instructions that employees should “pause activities" on the request until noon Monday.

“I’ll be candid with you. Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration’s priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the below email,” Keveney said in an email viewed by The Associated Press.

Keveney laid out security concerns and pointed out some of the work done by the agency’s employees may be protected by attorney-client privilege: “I have received no assurances that there are appropriate protections in place to safeguard responses to this email.”

Musk's team sent an email to federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the deadline — set in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST Monday — would lose their job.

Democrats and even some Republicans were critical of Musk's ultimatum, which came just hours after Trump encouraged him on social media to “get more aggressive” in reducing the size of the government through his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, was among the members of Trump’s party who had concerns.

“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this,” Curtis, whose state has 33,000 federal employees, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation." “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. ... It's a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.”

On ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., questioned the legal basis the Trump administration would have for dismissing tens of thousands of workers for refusing to heed Musk’s latest demand. The email did not include the threat about workers losing their jobs.

For Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., there was no doubt: “The actions he’s taking are illegal," he said on “Face the Nation.”

Trump mocked the affected workers in a meme Sunday on his social media network. The post featured a cartoon character writing a list of accomplishments from the previous week led by, “Cried about Trump,” “Cried about Elon,” “Made it into the office for once,” and “Read some emails.”

Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, an outspoken Trump ally, instructed bureau employees to ignore Musk’s request, at least for now.

“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in an email confirmed by the AP. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”

Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, sent his staff a message Sunday that may cause more confusion. Martin noted that he responded to Musk's order.

“Let me clarify: We will comply with this OPM request whether by replying or deciding not to reply,” Martin wrote in the email obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management.

“Please make a good faith effort to reply and list your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I will, as I mentioned, have your back regarding any confusion,” Martin continued. “We can do this.”

The night before, Martin had instructed staff to comply. “DOGE and Elon are doing great work. Historic. We are happy to participate,” Martin wrote at that time.

Officials at the Departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security were more consistent.

Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary of state for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers.

“No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” Nagy wrote in an email.

Pentagon leadership instructed employees to “pause” any response to Musk's team as well.

“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” according to an email from Jules Hurst, deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses.”

The Homeland Security Department told employees that “no reporting action from you is needed at this time” and that agency managers would respond, according to an email from R.D. Alles, deputy undersecretary for management.

Everett Kelley, president of the 800,000-member American Federation of Government Employees, said in a letter Sunday to the administration that it should rescind Musk's request and apologize to all federal workers by the end of the day.

"We believe that employees have no obligation to respond to this plainly unlawful email absent other lawful direction,” he wrote, describing Musk as “unelected and unhinged.”

Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce — either by being fired or through a “deferred resignation” offer. There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but the AP has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected.

Musk on Sunday called his latest request “a very basic pulse check.”

“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” Musk wrote on X. “In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”

He has provided no evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have falsely claimed in recent days that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.

Meanwhile, thousands of other employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce this coming week, including probationary civilian workers at the Pentagon and all but a fraction of U.S. Agency for International Development staffers through cuts or leave.

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Byron Tau, Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Perrone and Tara Copp in Washington and Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Pentagon is seen in this aerial view through an airplane window in Washington on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The Pentagon is seen in this aerial view through an airplane window in Washington on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's new Director of the FBI, speaks during a swearing-in ceremony, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's new Director of the FBI, speaks during a swearing-in ceremony, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Elon Musk arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Elon Musk arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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